


Strangeness is a Necessary Ingredient

by The_Mouse_of_Anon



Category: Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Body Positivity, Eddie has the hots for La'gaan, La'gaan has low self-esteem, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, So so much fluff, The origin of Eddie's affectionate nickname for La'gaan, but Eddie is a wonderful boyfriend, but at least Eddie gets through to him, even if La'gaan has a hard time accepting that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 05:50:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11396607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Mouse_of_Anon/pseuds/The_Mouse_of_Anon
Summary: It was a small request, but not one that La’gaan would have expected. Of course the idea that Eddie would actually want to touch him wasn’t that unusual in the logical sense, but there was a part of him that couldn’t help but be surprised anyway. Wonders never ceased.





	Strangeness is a Necessary Ingredient

**Author's Note:**

> This super-fluffy Devilfish fic was born out of several things: 1) my fic commemorating my 250-followers mark on tumblr, 2) an absolutely fantastic prompt my fiance gave me, and 3) being in Devilfish hell and needing an outlet for my Devilfish feels. lol
> 
> Also, the title of this fic is owed entirely to this post:  
> http://fire-fira.tumblr.com/post/149770352055/asofterjustice-quote-by-charles-baudelaire
> 
> As with most of my other Devilfish fics, this one takes place in the same reality and is early on in their relationship. I hope you enjoy the fluff! n.n

It was a small request, but not one that La’gaan would have expected. Of course the idea that Eddie (who he’d been going out with for about a month now) would actually want to touch him wasn’t that unusual in the logical sense, but there was a part of him that couldn’t help but be surprised anyway. Then again La’gaan still had a hard time believing that Eddie thought he was attractive in the first place. Wonders never ceased.

“Can I?” Eddie asked. He was parked on La’gaan’s bed, nervously sitting next to the atlantean with hopeful golden-glowing eyes locked on La’gaan.

“Don’t know why you’d want to Devilfish,” La’gaan said honestly.

The fire-wielder gave a fond smile and gently bumped his shoulder against La’gaan’s. “Maybe because I’m your boyfriend, you’re wonderful, and you look like your entire body is a giant knot?”

Eddie was right, La’gaan _was_ pretty much a giant knot of tension, but that’s what came from having been thrown through a wall or three on their last mission. It still didn’t change the fact that he hadn’t expected Eddie to offer to help. “You don’t have to. I’ll manage. I always do.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Okay, now you’re just being stubborn. C’mon, what will it hurt? You get a massage, I get to run my hands all over your back, we both win.”

La’gaan aimed a confused look at Eddie. True, he _liked_ the fact that Eddie kept making passes at him, but sometimes he just didn’t know how to react. After a moment or two he finally said, “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope!” Eddie agreed, his eyes glowing a touch brighter in mirth.

“And you called _me_ ‘stubborn’,” La’gaan scoffed.

“Stubborn enough for you,” Eddie grinned before scooting a little closer. When La’gaan didn’t pull away, Eddie took that as a good sign and asked again in a much more subdued tone, “Will you let me rub your back?”

For a moment the atlantean hesitated, but against that look of genuine concern and affection he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘no.’ He sighed, then quietly said, “Alright Devilfish, you can.” Eddie _beamed_ before hugging him enthusiastically. “What’s this for?”

Eddie gave him a quick peck on the cheek before he said, “For being the most wonderful boyfriend ever.” Letting La’gaan go, Eddie pulled his legs up onto the bed and turned to maneuver around on his knees to get behind La’gaan before sitting down again.

Glancing back over his shoulder, La’gaan said, “I dunno about that. Pretty sure I can be a pain in the ass.”

“A gorgeous pain in the ass who isn’t anywhere near as obnoxious as he seems to think he is,” Eddie insisted with a smile.

It was hard for La’gaan to not laugh at that, mostly because he was torn between the warm feelings that bubbled up at the compliment and disbelief that it was true, while _knowing_ that Eddie wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t honestly think it. “I’ve mentioned you’re weird, right?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Eddie’s smile turned into a grin as he leaned forward, one warm palm coming to rest on La’gaan’s shoulder, and said, “Even before I started making passes at you,” before kissing La’gaan’s cheek again.

Looking away, La’gaan huffed, “And you’re still weird.”

“You love it and you know it,” Eddie teased before bringing his other hand up to settle on La’gaan’s other shoulder. For a moment or two he just let the warmth radiate from his palms into the atlantean’s shoulders. “Let me know if I need to drop the heat a notch or two, or if I should shift away the claws, okay?” La’gaan gave a grunt of agreement, and then Eddie got to work.

Despite himself, it didn’t take long for La’gaan’s eyes to slide shut in contentment. The warmth from Eddie’s hands helped relax his tense muscles and smooth away the aches briefly made sharper by the massage. A small part of him couldn’t help the knee-jerk reaction of feeling self-conscious as those surprisingly strong fine-boned hands danced over his back, but he ignored it in favor of reveling in that perfect level of warmth. (How Eddie just _knew_ that exact right temperature was a mystery to La’gaan, but not one he was going to complain about.)

As for Eddie, while he carefully kneaded away the knots in La’gaan’s back he was reveling in the feeling of finally _really_ being able to run his hands over La’gaan; the shining green scales slick one direction and slightly scraping against his palms in the other captivated him. Just feeling how the muscles of La’gaan’s back rippled under his hands almost made him blush at the thoughts it called to mind, but easing La’gaan’s discomfort was much more important. Then there was the slight gradation on La’gaan’s scales from green to the darker, almost black, green of his stripes and fins— a gradation that would have been impossible to see as anything other than a solid line if Eddie hadn’t been so close. The glow from Eddie’s eyes slightly illuminated La’gaan’s back, and the warm light gleaming on La’gaan’s darker scales and fins made Eddie think of a clear emerald, backed by black velvet with faint glimmers of light shining through. In his opinion it was breath-taking.

Eddie worked his way down La’gaan’s back to his waist, chuckling at the appreciative groan that elicited, and then worked his way back up again before turning his attention to La’gaan’s arms. He was tempted to move to touch the fins on the back of La’gaan’s head, but he had a feeling that if he tried it too soon that La’gaan might flinch away on reflex. As he worked on La’gaan’s shoulders Eddie carefully threaded his fingers around the small shoulder-spikes, which turned out to be far more solid than he had expected. This close he could see the specialized scales for what they were, and he couldn’t help but vaguely wonder if La’gaan ever shed them in their entirety or if he just shed the upper layer like a snake. Not that he minded either way. He also couldn’t help wondering if they were ever sharp or if the tips were permanently rounded. Shoving the thought aside, Eddie traced his fingers around the shoulder-spikes, giving just enough pressure and heat to help unknot the muscles before continuing on.

It was as Eddie was slowly kneading his way down La’gaan’s right arm that La’gaan said, “Devilfish, when did you get so good at this?”

Eddie shrugged. “There were a lot of random skills I learned in my aunt’s studio when I was younger. Knowing how to give a pretty good massage was one of them,” he said without looking up from his focus on La’gaan’s arm. “My aunt used to turn into a bundle of knots on the more demanding days and I wanted to do what I could to help her. One of the set guys, guy by the name of Desmond, used to be a physical and massage therapist before he got into set-design. Pretty much made it his mission to teach anyone he could how to give a proper massage so they wouldn’t risk screwing something up and making it worse, so he taught me. Figuring out about the whole heat thing obviously came _after_ I ended up like this.”

“No, I would’ve thought you’d figure out how to control your temperature _before_ you had your big shift and it became an issue,” La’gaan said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Eddie briefly paused and made a face at La’gaan in response. Turning his attention back to La’gaan’s arm he retorted, “What, like how you should have been prepared to be on land before you ever stepped foot on land?”

“Smartass,” La’gaan said, almost smiling despite himself.

“Takes one to know one,” Eddie smirked. Once he was satisfied that he was done with La’gaan’s right arm, wrist, and hand, he scooted over a little to focus on the other arm. As his fingers dug in around the shoulder-spikes he added, “Not that I’m complaining. The fact that you’re such a smartass is kind of hot actually.”

A bark of laughter escaped La’gaan before he could restrain the impulse. He could have dropped it, but going with the thought he’d had felt less awkward than falling silent. “Anyone ever tell you that you have weird tastes?”

Eddie snorted. “If we’re going to get into another bout of you insisting that you’re ugly, you’re gonna lose.”

“Weird _and_ slightly delusional,” La’gaan said in deliberate tease.

Eddie looked up, his brows knitting together slightly. After a moment or two he said with a huff, “I grew up around actors. I know beautiful when I see it. And stereotypical beauty-standards are bullshit.”

La’gaan raised his eyebrows, his expression one of mild disbelief. “Are you seriously saying that you think I’m ‘beautiful’?”

“‘Think’ _nothing_ ; I _know_ ,” Eddie insisted as he carefully massaged soothing circles around La’gaan’s wrist before working on his hand. “You are one of the most gorgeous people I’ve ever met. I meant it when I said that I honestly would have thought you’d have a ton of people throwing themselves at you. If I had thought that I had a chance before that day, do you honestly think I would have hesitated to ask you out?”

La’gaan wanted to argue, to disagree, to insist that Eddie wouldn’t have been interested, but he was. If Eddie hadn’t been interested he wouldn’t have kept making passes at La’gaan— he wouldn’t have even _started_ making passes at him in the first place!— and they wouldn’t be in the situation they were now. When La’gaan had been with M’gann he had always felt like she was absolutely stunning and he was _nothing_ next to her, and as such he could only be grateful that she had ever bothered to look his way. He hadn’t realized that she had deliberately encouraged those feelings of inadequacy until after the relationship ended. And yet, Eddie continuously (and relentlessly) insisted that La’gaan was attractive to the point of almost being distracting at times; it was difficult to reconcile.

“There are plenty of other people,” La’gaan cautiously hedged.

Eddie snorted before deliberately leaning in close, his chest pressing against La’gaan’s bare back, left hand still on La’gaan’s left wrist and his right arm snaking around La’gaan’s waist so that he could say right next to La’gaan’s ear, “And I chose _you_. No one else. Just _you_. Believe me, I wouldn’t keep having distracting thoughts about having wild make-out sessions with you if I didn’t honestly think you were hot as hell.”

For probably the first time La’gaan sputtered, briefly at a loss for words as a blush flared to life on his cheeks; no one else had ever made him feel so flattered that he didn’t know how to react. Despite himself, he didn’t want to pull away from Eddie either. It was weird feeling that knee-jerk impulse to pull away simultaneously with a surprised and giddy happiness that almost drowned out the impulse. Finally he said in a flustered grumble, “Keep saying things like that Devilfish and one day you’re going to kill me.”

The fire-wielder chuckled, pressed a kiss to his shoulder while briefly hugging him, and then pulled away to go back to the massage. “Somehow I think you’ll build up a resistance eventually; like if I keep calling you ‘beautiful’ enough then eventually you’ll stop choking on air when I say it.”

La’gaan glanced back over his shoulder and made no move to pull away when he felt Eddie’s hands return to his back and slide up to rest on top of his shoulders. “I don’t know. Pretty sure I’ll die before then,” he said. Eddie prodded La’gaan’s side with the tip of his tail, somehow managing to find the _one_ ticklish spot without even looking, earning an involuntary squawk and a brief attempt from La’gaan to twist away in the process. “ACK! _Devilfish!_ ”

Eddie snickered and said, “You deserved that. And just for that I’m going to call you beautiful every chance I get.”

That earned a huff from La’gaan, along with an attempted glare over his shoulder that didn’t come off anywhere near as serious as he wanted it to. “You’re weird, have weird tastes, and I’m pretty sure you’re a little crazy.”

Eddie cocked his head to the side and arched an eyebrow. “In case you haven’t noticed, you’re the one who agreed to go out with me. So, ‘Your Normal-ness’, I don’t think you have much room to talk. Besides, we already know that you think I’m hilarious.”

La’gaan hesitated for a second, then playfully insisted, “Doesn’t change the fact that you’re weird.”

“And you’re my perfectly weird boyfriend who looks downright normal next to me,” Eddie grinned before gently nudging La’gaan’s jaw with two fingers. “Come on Beautiful, let me work on your neck a bit more and your fins. Then you can complain about how weird I am to your heart’s content.”

La’gaan was surprised, so much so that he complied and turned his head to face forward without really thinking about it as he tried to process that Eddie had said what he had. It wasn’t that he considered Eddie touching his fins as overly intimate, but more that it hadn’t even occurred to La’gaan that Eddie would _want to_ ; because if being covered in green scales hadn’t been weird enough to make Eddie shy away from touching him (and it hadn’t), then La’gaan had assumed that his fins at least would be ‘too weird’ for Eddie to want to touch. That, combined with the spontaneous affectionate nickname threw him for a loop. And then those warm hands began gently massaging his neck and around the base of his skull, effectively distracting him from his thoughts.

The warmth just seeped in as Eddie’s hands slowly worked their magic. By the time Eddie shifted his focus from La’gaan’s neck to the fins on the back of his head, the atlantean was almost a puddle of bliss. La’gaan had overheard some of the others (most notably Mal and Karen) commenting about how a really good scalp massage done right was almost enough to block everything else out, but not having experienced it before he’d had his doubts. Now? Now those doubts had flown out the window, leaving La’gaan with the certainty that if Eddie was perfectly happy with keeping it up for an hour or two he’d let him.

Eddie was thoroughly pleased with the way La’gaan just _melted_ in relaxation; _that_ was what he wanted to see. To Eddie’s way of thinking La’gaan had a tendency to get too wound up and aggravate the problem by bottling everything up until he nearly exploded. The fact that La’gaan had been thrown through a few walls didn’t help. But this, the way that he was getting La’gaan to just melt and make occasional noises of pure bliss, this felt like a step in the right direction. He hadn’t known what to expect when it came to the texture of La’gaan’s fins, but he found they were surprisingly sleek but soft. It almost reminded Eddie of the belly of a snake—sleekly scaled and smooth but with a softness and warmth that he loved the sensation of, yet in some ways La’gaan’s fins felt far more fine despite the regular ridges of cartilage that reminded Eddie of the ray-like pattern of a lion fish’s spines. As much as he liked the feel of La’gaan’s fins, it was nothing compared to the way the atlantean was melting from the gentle massage— now _that_ was far more endearing. Really, if La’gaan were capable of it he would have been purring.

Eddie gave a pleased hum before saying, “I know I’ve said it before, but you are absolutely gorgeous. You know that?”

La’gaan grunted, a sound that would have been a derisive snort if he wasn’t so consumed with melting under Eddie’s hands. “And I still say you’re weird and have weird tastes.”

Eddie leaned forward to whisper by La’gaan’s ear teasingly, “And if you keep that up Beautiful, I’m going to start making out with your neck and turn you into even more of a puddle of bliss.”

La’gaan blushed, his eyes cracking open as he tried to turn his head to ineffectually glower at Eddie. He couldn’t find it in himself to be as annoyed at Eddie’s smug pleasure as he wanted to be. Finally he settled on saying, “Devilfish, I love you, but shut up before you kill me.”

Eddie grinned in response, his tail delightedly weaving through the air behind him and flashing in and out of La’gaan’s range of vision. “That wasn’t a no.”

Neptune’s _beard_ , it was like the fire-wielder was trying to drive La’gaan into an early grave! Of bliss. With a really good massage. A _really_ good massage. And he might have been succeeding. A little.

La’gaan gave a groan, half-pleased and half-frustrated. “What is it going to take to get you to _stop_ trying to make me choke to death while you’re giving me the damned massage?”

An amused laugh as those wonderful hands worked their way over La’gaan’s fins again. “Hmm… Maayyybe accepting the fact that you’re one of the sexiest people in the world that I’ve met _and_ that my _knowing_ that you’re one of the hottest isn’t something I’m saying just to be ‘nice’?”

“Anything _else_?” La’gaan grumbled. It was proving almost impossible to come off even a tenth as irritable as he wanted to. A good idea then to never get into an argument with Eddie if Eddie’s hands were on his fins; there’d be no way he’d win.

Eddie considered for a moment before adding, “As a matter of fact…”

“Oh no.”

Eddie scooted forward so that his knees were bracketing La’gaan’s hips, his hands sliding away from La’gaan’s fins to wrap his arms around him so Eddie’s chest was flush with the atlantean’s back, and his chin resting on a scaled shoulder. “There is one more favor you could do for me that would get me to stop for a while.”

“Being?” La’gaan asked cautiously. He hoped Eddie didn’t notice the way his heart had suddenly started pounding— though he had a feeling that Eddie did because Eddie had a tendency of noticing _everything_ — but, somehow despite the near-panic and fear of rejection, La’gaan had no desire to pull free.

A smile tugged at Eddie’s lips. “Accept the fact that regardless of what anyone else thinks, in my eyes you’re so beautiful that there are times I go completely stupid around you and forget how to breathe; and that no matter what happens that opinion isn’t going to change. You’re stunning, you’re wonderful, and more than that? I love you.” He kissed the tip of La’gaan’s ear to punctuate his point, earning an ear-twitch that almost resembled a shiver.

La’gaan repressed the urge to tremble at the sudden Poseidonis-sized wave of happiness that threatened to overwhelm him, and brought one of his hands up to cover one of Eddie’s. He might have been able to hold back on trembling, but he couldn’t keep the smile from creeping onto his face. When he finally trusted himself to talk without making a complete fool of himself he quietly said, “Devilfish, you’re too good to me.”

Eddie snorted in laughter and briefly squeezed La’gaan a little tighter. “On the contrary, I’m giving you everything you deserve. Just sometimes you’re a little hard-headed and I have to be obnoxious in order to get through to you. So far I’m ten for ten though, so I think it’s working.”

La’gaan arched an eyebrow as he glanced over his shoulder at Eddie, but his smile was getting more blatant despite himself. “‘Ten for ten’?” he echoed, “Do I even want to know?”

Those beautiful glowing eyes brightened with mirth, and the brief pressure from Eddie’s fingers against La’gaan’s chest showed that he was counting off his points one by one. “Getting you to smile, getting you to laugh, getting you to trust me, getting you to realize that someone up here enjoys your company, getting you to realize that I wanted to be your friend, getting to actually _be_ your friend-”

“Mm. Didn’t make that one easy,” La’gaan agreed, his own amusement showing through.

“-No you didn’t, you goof,” Eddie said before continuing, “Getting you to realize that my making passes at you wasn’t a joke, getting you to start returning my flirts— even if half the time you didn’t mean to at first, getting you to go out with me, _aaannnnnddd_ … getting you to let me give you a massage and touch your fins. Which I wanted to do for a while.”

La’gaan didn’t know what to do about how flattered he felt. He did know that he was perfectly content staying right where he was though. Finally he settled on, “You’re weird. You’re a sap, but you’re still weird.”

Eddie snorted, kissed right behind La’gaan’s ear (which elicited a subtle shiver that he filed away for later) and retorted, “I’m _your_ sap, so get used to it.”

La’gaan hadn’t blushed so thoroughly in his life, but oddly enough he didn’t mind. “Love you too Devilfish,” he said while trying to sound long-suffering— but despite himself La’gaan couldn’t stop smiling, and he knew that Eddie wasn’t fooled for a moment.


End file.
